ROSEWOOD - Chapter 2

Built in the 1800s, the Rosewood Center finally shut down last year after a tumultuous and controversy-ridden history.

Few cities capture the spirit of "has-been" more than Owings Mills. Structures that were considered mansions in past lives dot the landscape, consumed by mossy vines. Rusty industrial relics remind visitors of a gilded past now exposed and depleted. Lawns of weedy tallgrass partially cover the dusty brick walls of low-income and minority communities.

And then there is the Rosewood Center. Built in 1888, the mental asylum grew to the size of a large university, with its own cafeteria, recreational center, even its own clinic. Yet the management quickly learned of its inability to lead such a facility. Stories of torture, abuse, and even rape surfaced throughout the institution's life, destroying its reputation little by little, until finally in 2006 the Rosewood Center was forced to close its doors. Now, three years later, the center's colonial-style buildings reek of neglect and slowly crumble into nothingness.

Ethan knew nothing of this when he jogged through the campus. It was a mild, sunny day, and the weather suited a brisk run. Although he noticed the Center's unkempt yards and dilapidated buildings, he figured that he was in an abandoned college or boarding school.

As he headed up the main road's shattered sidewalk, Ethan noticed what appeared to be a running track some one hundred meters to the left. The obsidian track, partially shrouded by trees, lay in a grassy depression. Although the day was fairly windy, the air around it seemed to stand still. Birds and insects appeared to avoid the track enclave altogether.

Yet the most obvious indicators never seem to deter our headstrong hero, who decided that the track would be ideal for running suicides. A weightlifter, he tried whenever possible to complement his training with anaerobic sets instead of long-distance cardio. And he had just found his proving grounds.

Just then, the shriek of a loud siren startled Ethan, who fell backwards. Struggling to gain composure, he pushed himself upwards to find a white van marked with the words "Baltimore Security." The driver, a middle-aged, grizzly black man, stepped out, perhaps amused at how little effort he needed to knock the younger man to the floor.

"You can't go that way. I know it looks abandoned, but this land belongs to the government now."

Ethan dusted his sleveless t-shirt off, slightly embarassed. "What's so special about this place?"

"This used to be the School for the Feeble Minded. A mental hospital for all kinds of crazy people. There was one lady who died losing all her blood after pulling out all her toenails with her bare hands. Another man went mad during lunch and gutted his caretaker with a cafeteria fork. Come to think of it, that happened twi-"

"Okay I get the picture!" Ethan snapped, somewhat disgusted. "Why did they shut this place down? Where else would those people go for help?"

The security officer's hoary brows tightened as he stared Ethan in the eyes. "They weren't getting any help here. People were tortured, they were mocked, raped, and abused at this center. Their beds were stuffed with asbestos so that they would pass away sooner and make room for new victims. You're in a twisted place. Stay away."

Some people shy away from what they fear. Others, like Ethan, take it as a challenge. The greatest adventures, after all, lie outside their comfort zones. Rejection only increases their curiosity and intrigue. So it was no surprise that scarcely one hour later, Ethan returned to the Rosewood Center, sneaking toward the obsidian track, past the security officers' watch.

ROSEWOOD - Chapter 1

The Rosewood Center in Owings Mills, Md. Formerly known as the Asylum and Training School for the Feeble Minded.

(based on a true story)

Ethan rushed his blue SUV down the I-795 corridor toward his new apartment in Owings Mills. The cardboard boxes full of books and furniture rattled as he careened past the all-too-comfortable Maryland drivers, those poor ambitionless spirits who satisfied themselves with poorly conceived speed limits. Always challenge the status quo, he affirmed to himself. He was reminded of a professor's favorite quote: Mankind thrives on creative destruction.

Although he looked forward to his new job as an academic dean, Ethan neither liked nor cared for the city of Owings Mills. "Just a sleepy suburb full of minorities and welfare babies," he would complain as he searched on the internet for a proper apartment. Most of his friends agreed; they were, after all, graduates of a prestigious and driven university, stewards of their future career aspirations to become brain surgeons and law partners. Yet Ethan did not flock with them to the usual cities where young professionals congregated. More than anybody, he longed for control, and he longed to stand out. He did not want to blend in with the scene in New York City or Chicago. Ethan wanted to become "the man," even if it meant coming to a dump like Owings Mills.

The apartment manager did not bother looking up as Ethan approached her desk, nor did she greet him. Ethan stood perplexed, unaccustomed to being ignored. In three weeks she'll know - no, they'll all know my name. Yet she continued to stare listlessly at her computer screen.

"Excuse me?" Ethan demanded. "I'm here for my apartment. I can't wait all day for you to daydream!" Ethan was not abrasive by nature, but he justified his behavior with a theory that combativeness was the only way to succeed in a competitive business environment. Although his aggressive approach landed him many enemies, he realized that even the worst adversaries respected his quick decisionmaking and inpenetrable facade. And respect was the most valuable commodity.

But the apartment manager barely seemed to notice. She continued to stare blankly into her computer screen. "Excuse me!" Ethan repeated. The manager looked at him apathetically. Without moving her lips, she quietly unclenched her fist to reveal a perfect set of Room 33 G keys. What a customer service disaster, Ethan thought to himself. He grabbed the keys and headed toward his room.

"Enjoy Owings Mills, Mr. Ethan."

Though he did not admit it, something about her voice made Ethan uneasy.

[all images from http://www.ozzu.com/photography-forum/rosewood-center-part-t89365.html]

A Must-Have Writing Toy

http://www.visuwords.com/

This is essentially a decision tree for words; not only will you find all the meanings, associations, and synonyms of a particular word, but it gives you a neat web of how all these are connected. If you're ever stuck in a writer's block and don't trust the synonyms list on Microsoft Word, try this out. At the very least, you'll save yourself from the embarassment of making erroneous word choices.

July 11th Star Wars Concert!

Featuring the ASO at their new venue deluxe, the Verizon Wireless Ampitheatre. I'm extremely excited for this performance; not only will they play the original John Williams suite but also selections from Holst's The Planets and Richard Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathustra!

To put these works into perspective, Holst's Mars influenced the soundtrack to the movie Gladiator so much that the Holst society sued composer Hans Zimmer for copyright infringement. Kinda silly, in my mind, when most music can find its roots in some past work. Take the famous Ode de Joy theme, for instance: Beethoven borrowed that melody nearly verbatim from a popular drinking song.

Strauss' music, on the other hand, was actually used verbatim for the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. Might have seen it in a few used car financing commercials as well. All in all, should turn out to be an awesome concert.

On a final note, although it's exciting to see the high turnout rates that these outdoors pops concerts usually get, unfortunately they don't usually translate to greater ticket sales for classical concerts. This hardly means that they are a strategic failure, though, since the orchestra not only gets plenty of pops revenue but also strengthens its role in its community, which ultimately leads to greater political and financial support during trying economic times ("in THIS economy..."). Just goes to show that orchestras can better navigate the waters by setting missions and goals outside the traditional classical spectrum.

This is not an orchestra economics post...

One of the more salient contributions of cultural economics to the field in general is the formal conceptualization of "addictive preferences," or in non-academic terms, acquired tastes. Tastes for the arts, and fine arts in particular, often fall into this category because demand for these goods increases with past exposure. This has been shown both in individual case studies and in audience segmentation studies.

This is where all references to cultural economics stop, since I'm actually here to talk about another addictive preference today: alcohol! Specifically, how the hell did I become a whiskey (whisky for the Irish) man? Like the arts, whiskey drinking involves a lot of patience, experimentation, and in some cases, failure (do NOT buy Grant's unless you want to study last night's dinner!). What puzzles many is that whiskey, frankly, tastes kind of shitty the first time you have it; why go through so much work when there are clearly greater opportunities for pleasure? Even if you, the newbie (assuming you're one of my regular readers), were to sip the finest 30-year single malt, you wouldn't have the taste buds to make a clear, articulation distinction between this ostentatious luxury and a bottle (or as those collegiate plebians call it, a "handle") of Jim Beam.

FYI, Jim Beam's aftertaste resembles a mouthful of canned corn. Malts don't.

My only answer is that the process of experimentation is an investment to a much greater return. Nobody asks, for instance, why a dorky male would try so hard and fail multiple times to lose his virginity when there are easy substitutes out there (porn). Or why an investor would continue to work his money even though his past ventures have evaporated a small fortune (ok, some do ask). Put simply, however, the reward justifies the means.

This still begs the next question, though: how in the world could I possibly know that whiskey will be a good reward? This, I can only blame instinct. Maybe its an inherent appreciation for the subtle - I am an arts guy after all. Maybe I prefer the classy, yet masculine social context of whiskey over the trampling testosterone of beer and the starving, frigid revolutionist of vodka. But the reasons are buried in my subconcious. Who knows. Time for another glass of 'fiddich.

Farewell, ASA

Don't let the title mislead you. Despite the good times, I am not here to reminisce about my two years as an ASA officer.

No, this article isn't about me (despite my promise in the my previous post mere hours ago). This article is about Duke's Asian Students Association as an organization, one that has not looked out towards its environment in ages and suddenly finds itself immersed in unfamiliar waters. This article is not a targeted rant at any past leader, since the underlying forces that have led to this current state have creeped stealthily off the radar, and old initiatives that worked in the past still seemed to work, albeit with dropping standards and efficiency every year. Rather, this article identifies how a changing Duke no longer allows the ASA to be what it once was, and it prescribes solutions that may fix the current problem. None of these solutions can involve keeping the ASA in its current form and mission, though; this is why I say farewell today.

What's at issue here? Put simply, the ASA has little power to create a constituency on campus. The idealized ASA wants to focus on four pillars: social, cultural, political, and community. Each pillar has a specific goal, yet the organization is no longer able to adequately acheive these goals. Two forces have been at work here:

1.) The rising Asian population at Duke. Once a school with fewer than 10% able to claim Far Eastern descent, Duke has recently shifted admissions policies and now welcomes freshman classes with over 30% Asians. On the surface, this seems like a good thing for the Asian Students Association - more "constituents!" Many will argue that Asian students have a tendency to self-segregate, and consequently more should self-segregate within the umbrella of the ASA. With a small Asian population, this may be true, as Asian students find a degree of familiarity and empathy with other Asian students they cannot find anywhere else, and having an organization to facilitate making these connections makes sense. A larger Asian population, though, means greater segregation within the race. With so many Asians around, it no longer makes sense to make friends solely because of race. Other factors like ethnicity, active interests, hobbies, or religion play a much larger role in creating communities than race. As an exercise, imagine yourself (if you're Asian!) in a small town with two other Asians - you're much more likely to be friends with these two specific individuals than if the town consisted entirely of Asians. To put it obviously, there's a greater chance that you'll find Asians with interests and personalities more compatible with yours in the second scenario. And of course, with a larger population, theres also a degree of backlash against self-segregation, and you'll find many Asian students who are thoroughly disgusted with the idea of a racially-segregating organization in the first place. This leads to the second force:

2.) The rise of student groups. From 2005-2009, the number of student groups on campus has doubled. Many groups are able to form close, involved communities. IV, for example, thrives on members' religious connections, while groups like the Taiwanese Students Association and the Thai Students Organization can unify members based on their ethnicity and country of origin. These groups are thus much more attractive to different students than the Asian Students Association, which has no unifying power besides race. The recent emergence of groups like the Chinese Students Association only further compounds this competition for membership and involvement.

These forces have profound consequences for the ASA's ability to complete its goals.

A.) Community. In the past few years, ASA execs have found it increasingly difficult to attract interest towards the organization, either through freshman events or through engaging an older population. Start-of-year programs, whether under the guise of FAMLI or big-little siblings, ultimately fail because freshmen have better alternatives than to get involved with an organization that connects little with them. I often hear opposing arguments that there are pockets of success within these programs, that there are instances where dedicated upperclassmen befriend freshmen who ultimately get involved with ASA. This argument is equivalent to saying that GM is a successful company because it sold a car to my uncle. Of course, there are freshmen who may come to ASA meetings at first and seem genuinely interested in ASA. Most of them stop caring once officer elections are over. There are also freshmen who make friends with upperclassmen because of shared hobbies or interests. This means the ASA is irrelevant in the scenario. Yes, the ASA program might have created the friendship, but no, it is neither the purpose of the program nor is it to the benefit of ASA. I've only talked about freshman community in this argument so far because any upperclass community generally consists of execs + which friends they could pull in that day. By that age, most people are already turned off.

B.) Cultural. Outside of LNY, other cultural groups take away some of the ASA's monopoly over cultural events. Some events, like hot pot night, still succeed heartily, while others flop. This is because increased cultural competition forces events to become more interesting and relevant to students' preferences. Simply offering culture, in other words, is not enough; the culture offered must be able to attract students. I know this is common sense, but it hasn't always been used, and I suspect this is because ASA sometimes believes it still owns a cultural monopoly.

C.) Political. Groups like DEAN and Common Ground who specialize in political discourse are able to provide quality events that easily compete with ASA's offerings. Furthermore, with a disparate Asian population as described above, there is little demand for ASA to serve as a "representative" organization. In other words, this is why we don't see a "white students organization" speak up whenever there is reverse discrimination. Yes, the BSA is a counter-example to what I've just argued, but lets face it, African-Americans unify more as a race because of historical factors, factors that do not influence the Asian-American population.

D.) Social. ASA is able to attract a certain population to its social events if the event itself is attractive. Again, this is pretty intuitive. Again, the rise of new student groups and the segmentation of the Asian population means that quality is more important than ever, and that simply being the hot spot for Asians doesn't cut it anymore.

What kind of role, then, fits the ASA in this kind of environment? Many have argued that there is no longer any need for an Asian Students Association. I disagree, there are several advantages an ASA could have that other cultural organizations may lack.

Scale - ASA can produce large-scale events like LNY, major charity drives, and high-profile speakers (ex. Russell Peters) because of its large scale and budget. The task would not be as approchable for individual cultural groups, both due to money and due to the number of acts related to their own culture they could field. It is much more efficient for a central organization like the ASA to oversee the production of these programs. The ASA's scale is also helpful in lobbying for Academic initiatives like an East Asian studies program.

Scope - Although East Asian cultures are unique in themselves, they share close similarities that are missing in other cultures. Therefore, great possibility exists for cross-cultural inquiry or collaboration. For example, a disaster relief project by the VSA may want to expand its reach to other East Asian cultural groups. In these cases, an organization like the ASA can advantageously move to increase communication among cultural groups or facilitate partnerships between them. ASA's inclusive scope also means that it can serve as a conduit of communication between Duke administration, student government bodies, and East Asian cultural groups.

A successful ASA, therefore, depends on its ability to a.) create successful cultural, academic, and social programming, and b.) foster communication and collaboration among ethnic or cultural student groups. Creating an "Asian community" within the general student body is irrelevant in this new environment; there is no market for such a product when there is no demand. In fact, focusing on programming rather than recruitment may help overall involvement in ASA, as the door opens up towards those who have broad interest in Asian cultures, not just those of Asian descent. Likewise, "representation" of the Asian population at Duke does not work when the population does not see itself as part of the ASA.

How to approach this rebuilding is the task of the new executive board. The personnel quality is there, but the temptation of reverting to status quo always remains.

From D-town back to D-town

I'm such an infrequent blogger, and when I do write I tend to produce analytical articles detailing the sustainability of symphony orchestras or the mental processes behind musical performance. It's difficult for me to separate my passions from my daily life; even the simplest logic will thus lead you to conclude that I am, indeed, a pretty big dork (+1 for using a semicolon!). But obviously, life isn't all about Baumol's Cost-Disease, and for those of you who care to follow up with me, I know that these Additional Pylons have been a bit of a disappointment.

To that end, I've decided that I Must Construct Additional Pylons into a more personal space. Of course I'll have plenty to write about music, as you would probably expect, and of course I'll talk about things like organizational strategy and education management (it is my job after all!). But since you are presumably reading this blog to keep up with me, Yi (Ethan) Xiang, you'll get what you want - plenty more of me (in a non-pornographic way).

So what's been going on here in the humid confines of Duluth, Georgia? Not too much. My daytime consists of long exercise routines at (much too) sunny Pickneyville Park or in the ultra-modern, renovated YMCA weight room. That is usually followed with some reading and GMAT studying. At night, I might go out for a drink or a mini-adventure with Matt, and of course, there's lounging around with the guys in channel scu. I've been on some interesting expeditions since graduation, however, from learning to ride a trotting horse in south Georgia to gathering 60 pounds of old, unused clothing in my attic for the local donation center (my, have I grown. and shrank. and grown again).

A few more events of note:

1. The Blattella asahinai has found its way to Georgia! The Asian Cockroach, that is. Has wings, can fly, attracted to light. Most of the time, you have to look out for roaches - they run away from light and hide under cracks. But the Asian Cockroach finds YOU! As you may be the only source of light in your otherwise energy-saving household, this guy will nonchalantly hover into your office room and select your laptop as its landing pad. Asian roaches also have higher armor upgrades than their American counterparts and are resistant to concus- er, chemcal damage. Not that my house is a roach lounge or anything; these things just happen more often when you live near the forest.

2. Been working on some video game music. The biggest challenge, to me at least, is that game music is more catchy than interesting. An interesting harmony is full of surprises and leads to a musical conclusion in unexpected ways. Example: "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Miserables, when the tune modulates from Eb Major to F minor! ("But the tigers come at night...") In contrast, a "catchy" tune is almost always, in musical theory language, I-VI(IV6)-IV(II6)-V-I (ex. "Bleeding Love") or I-V-VI-III-VI-I-IV-V (canon in D). Although less frequent, there are of course other patterns, and I ultimately went with something a little jazzier. Stay tuned for more news on the product.